The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for removing stones and other objects from the surface of cleared ground and removing a predetermined layer of top soil from the ground and treating said top soil by milling and crushing such that unwanted wild seeds and weeds, insects, their eggs and larva are destroyed, without the use of herbicides or insecticides. The soil is then returned to the swath from which it was removed in an improved condition, ready for planting. The method and apparatus may be utilized on any cleared property and is applicable to the property whether it has been farmed before. It is also possible with the apparatus and method disclosed herein to apply either liquid or solid fertilizer in the same operation and to actually plant the seed crop.
Ordinary farming methods generally require several different steps and involve separate pieces of apparatus requiring several passes over the same area. The tilling of the soil to prepare it for planting, "while disrupting and turning under" the weeds, grass and old crop, does not generally break up such organic matter to a sufficient degree to prevent such matter from competing with the planted crop for nutrition. Frequent weeding and cultivation during the growing season are therefore sometimes required. In addition, insects, their eggs and other larva remain alive in the soil after tilling and are harmful to the growing crop and upset the natural ecological balance. The usual manner of dealing with insects, their eggs and other larva has been with the use of insecticides which are expensive and costly to apply and which in some instances pose an environmental problem.
The method and apparatus disclosed in this invention, negate the need for herbicides and insecticides and through mechanical means, effectively process the soil to a texture suitable for planting. The current invention accomplishes much the same task as my previous invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,888,859, granted on Aug. 13, 1974 however, the present invention represents a new and different embodiment which permits the method to be practiced with the use of conventional farm machinery serving as the locomoting force.
In addition, the apparatus disclosed herein may be used in a stationary position wherein soil can be fed through the apparatus for processing and then returned to its source by any of a number of independent means.